Stepping in to 2026

All of a sudden, 2026 is here. A whole new year, a chance to leave the last one behind, ‘new year, new me’ and all of the other nonsense people say when December 31st turns into January 1st.

I’m not necessarily one for New Years Resolutions, but I do like challenges and I appreciate an excuse to take stock and reevaluate where needed. One of the things I am really looking at this year is money. I want to spend less and save more. And while it seems simple when you say it like that, it never quite seems to go that way!

Use It or Lose It in 2026

Step 1 in my Great Savings Plan of 2026 was to take stock of subscriptions and what is actually coming out of my bank account. Lo and behold, this little old blog is costing me money every single month despite only really being used once or twice a year. And so I decided: use it or lose it. Every month when the direct debit has come out, I have had a little pang of guilt and wondered if I should just close down the blog. I seem to have trouble letting go of things even when they’re failing – want proof? Take a look at my shop – and I’ve made myself a deal that I will reevaluate in the middle of 2026 and if I am not regularly blogging, it will be time to be ruthless.

Life Right Now

So. Where have I been and where am I now? Well, annoyingly, I went to Germany last year. That isn’t the annoying part – the annoying part is that I started this blog with that trip in mind, and wanted to use it as a way of memory keeping my time there. We took a trip across Europe, driving through 4 countries (I guess 5 if you include England!) and I have so many lovely memories of that time, I’d love to talk about it on here. But would it be weird to blog about it 6 or 7 months later? I also decorated my living room in 2024, I’d love to share it but again – has too much time passed?

Life otherwise is a mixed bag in 2026. My mobility is horrendous again and pain is mostly unbearable, so I have that to deal with on top of the mental aspect/self blame of having got back to that point. Work is good; my main gig is stable, and I’ve actually been picked up on a freelance basis for a different role within the company that I talked about firing me in my last post! My son is in secondary school now which is wild, and I grow more proud of him every day. The shop is eh. As it always is. I pour my everything into what I do, I absolutely love it, nobody else likes it, I get depressed for a while, get a new idea and pour my everything into it – and so the cycle repeats. 2026 will mark 9 years of Rymermade and logic would tell me to quit but I just can’t bring myself to leave her. So we’ll see.

Goals for 2026

Okay, its a new year, so I suppose I need to list some goals.

• Save for our garden and bathroom being redone
• Get a tattoo (I’ve got one booked! Just a teeny one but I’ll talk about it when it happens. If I remember!!)
• 100 books in 2026. I did 100 books in 2025 in the end (my goal was 85) so this one shouldn’t be difficult
• Increase my mobility and reduce my pain by getting back into a good routine with workouts and healing my current relationship with food
• Complete the two events I’ve got planned in 2026 with my shop and then have a serious think about whether or not I just close it down (yes, really. That makes me sad to even write it but yeah)
• Maybe join something social locally? Sounds scary…
• Actually use this blog and get better at social media routines in general
• Catch up in my memory planners. I haven’t finished 2023 yet so I have 2024 and 2025 to complete entirely. I intended to do a day a day in 2026 but its the 4th of January and I haven’t done any yet and don’t feel like doing it any time soon either.
• Finish my office renovation (which tbf will assist with the previous goal. Its all just overwhelming chaos at the moment)
• Come up with a plan to make me feel good about Christmas because the next time I have a Christmas off work will be 2030 and it is currently making my heart sad and Christmas is my favourite time so I should be feeling joy about it
• Every day, do 10 steps more than the day before

There are probably more things (and there are obviously more personal ones I won’t put on the internet) but I think that will do for now.

I have a rough idea of what I’d like to bring back to this blog in 2026, but let me know if you have any ideas of things you’d like to see too!